Russell Ball
Russell Ball (24 March 1891 – 12 June 1942) was a studio glamour photographer who made stills for films and portraits of Hollywood film stars including Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks, Mary Pickford, Esther Ralston and Carol Dempster.[1][2][3][4][5]
Life
Russell Earp Ball was born in Philadelphia. His father died while Russell was still a teenager; by 1910 Russell was working as a salesman for the Gas Light Manufacturing Company. He moved to New York and on 1 February 1912 he married the film journalist Gladys Hall,[6] with whom he had two children, while working as a newspaper photographer. By 1917 he was working as a photographer, and by 1920 he had specialised into making portrait publicity stills for films, among others for the Shubert Organization. After working independently for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925 (on the East Coast),[7] he opened his own studio at 9528 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills to work for private patrons and celebrities at the end of the 1920s.[8][9]
Louise Brooks, 1920s
Carol Dempster, 1920s
Esther Ralston in Sadie McKee, 1934
Greta Garbo, 1925
Phyllis Haver, 1928
Doris Kenyon, 1928_by_Russell_Ball_1924.jpg.webp)
Natacha Rambova (Mrs Valentino), 1924
Gloria Swanson, 1923
Estelle Taylor, 1930
Rudolph Valentino as a native American chief, 1923
References
- "A group of original photos and negatives of Mary Pickford taken by Russell Ball". Bonhams. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- "Los Grandes Fotografos". Los Grandes Fotografos. 3 August 2017.
Elmer Russell Ball (53 photographs)
- "Elmer Russell Ball". IMDB. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- Elvehjem Museum of Art (1987). Hollywood Glamour, 1924-1956: Selected Portraits from the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Chazen Museum of Art. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-932900-15-9.
- Keating, Patrick (2017). "Artifice and Atmosphere: The Visual Culture of Hollywood Glamour Photography, 1930–1935". Film History. Indiana University Press. 29 (3): 105–135. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05. ISSN 0892-2160. JSTOR 10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05. S2CID 191641256.
- Slide, Anthony (2010-02-26). Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-414-0.
- Shields, David S. (2013-06-18). Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-01343-5.
- Harnisch, L. M. (18 July 2016). "Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Russell Ball — An Eye for Glamour". Los Angeles Daily Mirror.
- Hall, Barbara (2016). Jane Gaines; Radha Vatsal; Monica Dall'Asta (eds.). "Gladys Hall". Women Film Pioneers Project. Columbia University Libraries. doi:10.7916/d8-1z95-5v19.
Further reading
- Kobal, John (1980). The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographer. New York: Knopf.